Crossed Fates by Lexi C. Foss

Makayla

Adrenaline shot through my veins.

Run. Chase. Play.

My stomach clenched at the thought. But something in Alaric’s tone gave me pause. Maybe it was the growl underlining his words. Or perhaps it was the warning glimmer in his gaze.

Either way, it caused my back to stiffen as I arched a challenging brow. “Then I hope you’re fast. It’ll make it all the more satisfying when you can’t catch me.”

Alaric’s eyes darkened as he watched me with an unblinking stare.

Unease trickled through my veins.

“Trust me, sweetheart. I’ll catch you. And I can’t promise to behave when I do.” The growl in his voice told me his wolf was just under the surface, waiting for an excuse to come back out to play and dominate.

My confidence in my ability to outrun him slowly waned with each passing second. Okay. Maybe I should… obey. But in my own way.

I scoffed as I made my way to the water, making it clear this wasn’t an act of submission so much as a show of respect. Yes, that was what I would choose to believe.

He grunted in appeasement and relaxed, his gaze lifting to the sky.

Spring in New York could be chilly, but as shifters, we ran hot, and with the sun shining down on us, the lake felt refreshing on my fevered skin. A whole different kind of hot.

We lounged in silence, again finding it comfortable and easy rather than awkward.

I waded into slightly deeper water and floated on my back, thinking about our next moves.

“My father expects me to take over. To give up my job. To give up my life. And come back to manage this pack. To lead them as their alpha.” His words were quiet and… tired. Like he just couldn’t keep them in anymore, and for whatever reason, he chose me to open up to. Probably because he felt safe confiding in me—a notable outsider.

Also maybe because there was no one else in the pack for him to talk to. At least, that’d been my assessment after roaming the grounds for hours.

The whispers and conversations I’d overheard on my run floated back to me, each one confirming a solitary thought. They don’t know him.

And people always feared what they didn’t know.

He must feel so alone.

Except, I also sensed the kindred spirit in him. The lone wolf, just like I had in myself. Which made it easy for me to relate, at least on some level.

“I know what that’s like, to be expected to do something and not do it,” I admitted, drawing his interest. “As a kid, I always wanted to be an enforcer. I trained for it. But my alpha, Nathan, saw more potential for me and offered me the chance to earn a place in his black ops agency.”

“You turned it down?”

I let my feet drop to the soft floor of the lake and shook my head. “No. I went into his training program. But my family was pissed. We’re close, and they hated the idea of my being gone and unreachable for however long in who knows where.”

“They wanted you to continue on the path to being an enforcer,” he translated.

“Yes. They wanted me to stay home. To be a part of the pack. To protect the pack.” I shifted my focus from the trees to him, deciding that I wanted him to understand my choice. “My packmates weren’t the ones who needed me. They have other enforcers. And I thought I would be one of them, but my true calling revealed itself to me while I was training with Nathan’s agency.”

“True calling?” he repeated, arching a brow.

My lips tipped into a crooked smile. “Freelance.”

“Meaning?”

“I take assignments to help those who can’t help themselves.” I tried to find a better way to phrase it, to make him understand my passion. “Shifters have packs. We’re supernatural. We heal quickly.” I looked pointedly at his shoulder. “But humans are fragile. Actually, I’d argue that everyone in this realm is fragile.” The last was muttered under my breath, and the flare in his pupils told me he’d caught it.

Clearing my throat, I clarified: “Shortly after I started training with my alpha’s agency, he took me on a mission. It was supposed to be a learning exercise, but it taught me more than any other experience of my life.”

“What was the mission?”

“A trafficking case, and it involved one of the girls at my school. Her father was one of the men in charge of the operation. He was this rich, handsome, typical businessman, with a charming smile and indulging wit. Yet behind closed doors, he beat her and her mother and helped transport innocent young girls. Like, ten years old.” My fists clenched just thinking about it. “And I had no idea. I’d missed all the signs. I realized then that my purpose was never to overlook anyone or anything ever again.”

“That’s why you were interested in the hybrid.”

I nodded. “I saw the news about Valaria Crimson and started asking around. When I heard the rumors about trafficking, I just knew I had to take this case.”

“And which black ops agency is it that you work for?” he asked, fully invested in our conversation now.

Probably because I’d finally given him a little glimpse into the real me.

“As I said, I’m not actually with his agency now. I’m more freelance.” A vague response, but true. I also didn’t see the point in giving him a name. He wouldn’t recognize it. So I settled on another truth instead. “My alpha had a fit at first, but he quickly came around to my way of thinking. I can be persuasive when I set my mind to it.” I snickered as I thought about how I’d hounded him until he’d finally given up on being mad. “However, Marc had to work a lot harder to gain back Nathan’s good graces, since he’d been the one to tap me for the freelance work.”

“Marc?” Alaric’s eyes narrowed and jealousy colored his tone. My wolf reacted positively to his possession and filled me with the desire to bite him and show him whom I belonged to. A rash reaction, one I shoved back with a vengeance.

“My mentor, Jean-Marc de la Croix. Marc for short.” I watched him carefully, curious if the name rang a bell to him. But his responding nod gave nothing away. Then his attention seemed to drift, going somewhere else and darkening his mood once more.

I debated how much to tell him, but something pushed me—or, more like pulled me to him and urged me—to give him the knowledge that I truly understood some of his pain. I wanted to lighten his load. And I also wanted him to know me a little. Maybe because I’d just spent the better part of my day living through what would clearly become intimate history for him. It only seemed fair for me to give him a little piece of me in return.

“I don’t go home much either,” I confessed. Too busy gallivanting around worlds I don’t belong in, like this one.

Alaric glanced at me for a moment, and I spotted the guilt lurking in his blue orbs.

“My parents don’t really know the extent of what I do—my mother would flip the hell out—and every time I go home, they put pressure on me to return.” I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “I love my pack. But I don’t want to be tied down like that.”

He met my gaze and held it, assessing me with an inquisitive expression. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Free spirit, I guess.”

He continued to study me, but he seemed a bit less moody. I sank into the water until it reached my neck, and peered upward. The rays of the sun streaked across the sky, and I followed their path to the sparkling water. This spot of Silver Lake spoke to my soul, and some part of me felt happy that it was just as beautiful in this realm. Perhaps Alaric would think of me whenever he happened upon it. For some reason, that thought appealed to me. The idea of Alaric forgetting my existence felt wrong.

“What kind of wolf are you?” he asked bluntly. “And what did you mean about everyone being fragile in this realm?”

Yeah, I should have known he wouldn’t let that slide. It wasn’t an intentional slip, yet it’d felt right to say. So maybe I should give him the truth. If he freaked out, I could just jump the realm with my ring.

I continued to stare off into the distance, unsure of how to begin. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I responded honestly.

“Try me.”

“I’m from Silver Lake, but in a different world.”

Silence.

Shaking my head, I turned to face him with an “I told you so” look that I punctuated out loud by saying, “I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Actually, I do,” he replied, shocking me. “My E.V.I.E. partner recently left this reality for another one. Not sure what exactly happened because my boss didn’t give me all the details, but she disappeared with some royal vamp.”

“Royal vamp?”

“Cassius.”

Dimitri’s cousin?My eyebrows shot upward. “You’re sure that’s his name?”

“Yep. The night before I saved you—”

I scoffed and started to protest, but his mouth curved up slightly and I realized he was messing with me. So I rolled my eyes and kept quiet.

“Violet and I went to Blood Thirteen to investigate a lead on the Bloodsucker Serial Killer, but it turned out to be a vampire nest. ‘By invitation only’ made a lot more sense once we realized they were waiting to kill a bunch of humans.” Alaric’s expression filled with anger. “Anyway, they locked the doors and shut out the lights, and mayhem descended in the form of sharp objects and screams.”

“Whoa,” I breathed.

“Yeah. Violet and I fought back—I had some UV bombs, and we both had our stakes—but the hybrid subdued us with some kind of chemical. We woke up tied to chairs in silver chains.” Alaric tunneled his fingers through his hair and blew out a harsh breath before returning his hands to the water. “Next thing I knew, Cassius showed up out of fucking nowhere with Luci—Violet’s hellhound. He freed Violet, but the jackass left me there.”

I was a little shocked at that. Cassius is a dick, but not the devil.

“Well, he loosened my chains enough for me to escape from them myself. But he’s still not winning any awards, as far as I’m concerned.”

Ahhh. Yes. Dick, not devil.I did wonder sometimes, though…

“By the time I managed to free myself, he and Violet were long gone.”

My hands swished around in the water as I contemplated Alaric’s story. “Huh. That makes sense,” I concluded.

“It does?”

“Yeah, Cassius is from my universe.” I held my hand out to Alaric, palm down, and wiggled my index finger to show him my ring. “A witch gave me this ruby. She made a similar one for Cassius. He probably took Violet back to our world.” Although, I wasn’t sure why. Was she the long-lost slayer he once loved? Kseniya, if memory served right. Maybe she’d changed her name to Violet in this realm?

Alaric moved closer and took my hand. I ignored the tingling sensation on my skin wherever he touched.

“How does this explain things?” he asked.

“You know the portal near E.V.I.E?”

“Of course.”

“This ring opens up one like that, but it gives me the ability to travel back and forth through the realms.”

He inspected the ring, turning my hand this way and that. “That’s incredible.” He sounded fascinated, but then a growl rumbled in his chest and his pupils went solid black for a few seconds, alerting me that his wolf adamantly disagreed with that assessment.

When Alaric’s blue irises returned, his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth pressed into a straight line, clearly irritated. Although, it didn’t seem to be directed at me, and the moment quickly passed.

Alaric released my hand, and my wolf whined at the loss of physical connection with him.

“So if you had that, how did you end up in a cage?”

I grinned. “I let Vex catch me. It seemed like the best way to acquire some answers, you know, by playing the victim. He gave me a bit with that phone call about the silver poisoning, and I’d intended to find out more, but…”

I trailed off and waved a hand at him.

“Then I happened,” he muttered. “Okay, yeah. I guess I shouldn’t have killed him.”

I gave him a small smile. “It was hasty.”

“It was,” he agreed. “I’d been focused on what I knew he could do, and I had no idea that he’d…” His throat worked, his emotions spiking to the surface.

I had no idea that he’d poisoned my brother, was likely what he’d meant to say.

All I could do was nod. “I know.”

Determination hardened his features, chasing away his guilt. “I have to find out who is behind this.”

I closed the distance between us and put my hand on his forearm, giving it a comforting squeeze. “We will,” I promised him. It was such a natural reaction. A phrase I hadn’t really meant to say but couldn’t take back.

Because we would find out who did this.

There was no alternative now. I wanted to know more about the trafficking ring. He needed answers regarding the silver poisoning. It made sense for two lone wolves to work together to discover those explanations, and whatever links existed between them, and take down those responsible.

I told him that without words, squeezing his forearm once more.

Electricity hummed between us.

We were so close, the heat radiating from his body bathing me in warmth. My thoughts clenched, butterflies erupted in my stomach, and my pulse accelerated.

Alaric’s dark blue eyes blazed with fire as his gaze dropped to my lips before lowering to my breasts and traveling back up again.

We’d been lounging beneath the water, but we were both standing now, and the depth hit just above his hips. That put every sinuous, chiseled, wet muscle on display, including the sexy V carved into his abs and framing his hips. A thin trail of hair bisected the middle, leading to…

I swallowed hard, unable to stop myself from following that sensuous path to his prominent erection.

The clear water did nothing to hide it.

Just as it did nothing to hide me.

Because we were both naked.

And very, very alone.